Connect with us

Published

on

Claims made by the mother in the BBC presenter scandal are “rubbish”, a lawyer for the young person has reportedly said.

In a letter to the BBC, the lawyer casts doubt on The Sun’s story about the male star who has not been publicly identified but is reportedly a “household name”.

The letter said “nothing inappropriate or unlawful” took place between the young person and the presenter, according to the BBC.

The letter added the young person sent a denial to the newspaper on Friday evening, saying there was “no truth to it”.

However, the “inappropriate article” was still published, the lawyer told the corporation.

Read more: BBC presenter claims – live updates

It comes as the Metropolitan Police earlier said it was “assessing information” supplied by the BBC over the claims.

More on Bbc

The force is carrying out further enquiries to establish whether any crime has been committed following the allegations.

Representatives for the broadcaster spoke to Met detectives, who said they are looking at the information discussed at the virtual meeting – but have not yet launched an investigation.

The BBC quoted a spokesperson for The Sun as saying: “We have reported a story about two very concerned parents who made a complaint to the BBC about the behaviour of a presenter and the welfare of their child.

“Their complaint was not acted upon by the BBC. We have seen evidence that supports their concerns. It’s now for the BBC to properly investigate.”

According to the newspaper, which first broke the story on Saturday, the presenter paid the young person, now aged 20, about £35,000 in exchange for sexually explicit images over a three-year period.

He allegedly began requesting the images in 2020 when the individual was 17 years old and made a series of payments over the years.

The individual had reportedly used the money to fund an addiction to crack cocaine – that had “destroyed” their life, according to their mother.

It was also alleged the presenter stripped to his underwear during a video call with them.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

What we know about claims against BBC star

Read more:
Presenter should only be named after ‘full’ investigation – justice secretary
Everything we know about the claims
The stars who have denied it’s them

Family members of the young person said they made a complaint to the BBC on 19 May, but approached The Sun after becoming frustrated the presenter was still on air a month later.

While the paper has not revealed the name of the star, they have said he is paid a six-figure salary and is currently off-air. He was suspended by the BBC on Sunday.

Following the publication of allegations in the press, the presenter is understood to have contacted the young person involved, phoning them and asking, “what have you done?”

In a statement issued by the BBC on Sunday, the corporation confirmed they first received a complaint about the presenter in May.

They said they were taking the allegations “very seriously,” and had gone on to suspend the presenter after receiving new allegations of a different nature in addition to their own enquiries.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Jeremy Vine: ‘It can’t be me’

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Wrongly named presenter takes legal advice

Gary Lineker, Rylan Clark, Jeremy Vine and Nicky Campbell are among the BBC stars to have publicly stated that they are not the presenter in question.

The presenter remains unnamed due to a number of reasons.

Firstly, the reports in The Sun are allegations and it is not clear what evidence they have and who supplied it.

It is also unclear if any laws have been broken, without knowing the content of the alleged photographs, and when exactly they were sent.

And the UK’s defamation laws protect individuals against harm, reputational or otherwise, caused by things that have been said about them which turn out to be false.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Bruce Springsteen: The Boss to release seven ‘lost’ albums

Published

on

By

Bruce Springsteen: The Boss to release seven 'lost' albums

Bruce Springsteen is to release seven albums of mostly unheard material this summer.

The US singer said the songs, written and re-recorded between 1983 and 2018, were being made public after he began completing “everything I had in my vault” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a short video posted on Instagram, Springsteen said the albums were “records that were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released”.

The 83-song collection is being released in a box set called Tracks II: The Lost Albums and goes on sale on 27 June.

Some 74 of the tracks have never been heard before.

Springsteen first teased the release on Wednesday morning with a short social media video accompanied by text which said: “What was lost has been found”.

Tracks II is the follow-up to the star’s first Tracks volume, a four-CD collection of 66 unreleased songs, released in 1998.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 26, 2025: Bruce Springsteen took the stage at Carnegie Hall for People Have the Power: A Celebration of Patti Smith, an electrifying tribute to the legendary artist. The event, presented by Michael Dorf, honored Smiths profound impact on music, poetry, and activism, bringing together an all-star lineup to perform her most iconic songs. (Photo: Giada Papini Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire). Photo by: Giada Papini Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
Image:
Bruce Springsteen at New York’s Carnegie Hall at a tribute to Patti Smith last month. Pic: PA

The New Jersey-born rocker, nicknamed The Boss, last released a studio album in 2022.

Only the Strong Survive was a collection of covers, including songs by Motown and soul artists, such as the Four Tops, The Temptations, The Supremes, Frankie Wilson and Jimmy Ruffin.

The late soul legend Sam Moore, who died in January and was a frequent Springsteen collaborator, sang on two of the tracks.

Read more from Sky News:
Tributes to ‘genius’ Kilmer
Penguin island facing tariffs
Richest billionaires named

Springsteen is coming to the UK in May to launch a two-month tour of Europe with his E Street Band.

The shows will include performances at the Co-op Live in Manchester and Liverpool’s Anfield stadium.

The singer-songwriter has sold more than 140 million records since his debut on the music scene in 1973, according to his website.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt avoids jail

Published

on

By

Stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt avoids jail

A man who stalked Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas for six years has avoided jail.

Kyle Shaw, 37, got a 20-month suspended sentence and a lifetime restraining order on contacting Ballas, her mother, niece, and former partner.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that he thought Ballas was his aunt and “began a persistent campaign of contact”.

“He believed, and it’s evident from what he was told by his mother, that her late brother was his father,” said prosecutor Nicola Daley.

The court heard there was no evidence he was wrong, and “limited evidence” he was correct.

Ms Daley said Shaw’s messages had accused Ballas of being to blame for the death of her brother, who took his own life in 2003 aged 44.

He also set up social media accounts in his name.

Shaw had pleaded guilty to stalking the former dancer between August 2017 and November 2023 at a hearing in February.

Incidents included following Ballas’s 86-year-old mother, Audrey Rich, while she was shopping and telling her she was his grandmother.

The court heard in messages to Mrs Rich, Shaw had asked: “Where’s my dad?”

Ballas was so worried for her mother’s safety that she moved her from Merseyside to London.

Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA
Image:
Kyle Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA

In October 2020, Ballas called police after Shaw messaged her and said: “Do you want me to kill myself, Shirley?”

Posts on X included one alongside an image of her home address that warned: “You ruined my life, I’ll ruin yours and everyone’s around you.”

Another referenced a book signing and said: “I can’t wait to meet you for the first time Aunty Shirley. Hopefully I can get an autograph.”

The court was told Ballas’s niece Mary Assall, former partner Daniel Taylor and colleagues from Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s Loose Women were also sent messages.

‘I know where you live’

On one occasion in late 2023, Shaw called Mr Taylor and told him he knew where the couple lived and described Ballas’s movements.

The court heard the 64-year-old TV star become wary of socialising and stopped using public transport.

Prosecutor Ms Daley said: “She described having sleepless nights worrying about herself and her family’s safety and being particularly distressed when suggestions were made to her that she and her mother were responsible for her brother taking his own life.”

Man accused of stalking Shirley Ballas
Image:
Ballas has been head judge on Strictly Come Dancing since 2017. Pic: PA

Shaw cried and wiped away tears as he was sentenced on Tuesday.

The judge said the stalking stemmed from his mother telling him Ballas’s brother, David Rich, was his biological father.

“I’m satisfied that your motive for this offending was a desire to seek contact with people you genuinely believed were your family,” he said.

“Whether in fact there’s any truth in that belief is difficult, if not impossible, to determine.”

Kyle Shaw leaves Liverpool Crown Court, where he is charged with stalking Strictly judge Shirley Ballas.
Pic: PA
Image:
Shaw pictured at court in February. Pic: PA

Read more from Sky News:
Cast of Beatles films revealed

Tractor crashes into houses in Cheshire

Defence lawyer John Weate said Shaw had been told the story by his mother “in his mid to late teens” and had suffered “complex mental health issues” since he was a child.

He added: “He now accepts that Miss Ballas and her family don’t wish to have any contact with him and, importantly, he volunteered the information that he has no intention of contacting them again.”

Shaw, of Whetstone Lane in Birkenhead, also admitted possessing cannabis and was ordered to undertake a rehab programme.

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Gary Glitter made bankrupt after failing to pay £500k compensation to victim

Published

on

By

Gary Glitter made bankrupt after failing to pay £500k compensation to victim

Gary Glitter has been made bankrupt after failing to pay more than £500,000 in damages to a woman he abused when she was 12 years old.

She sued the disgraced singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, after he was found guilty of attacking her and two other schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980.

Glitter, 80, was jailed for 16 years in 2015 and released in 2023 but was recalled to prison less than six weeks later after breaching his parole conditions.

A judge awarded the woman £508,800, including £381,000 in lost earnings and £7,800 for future therapy and treatment, saying she was subjected to abuse “of the most serious kind”.

The court heard she had not worked for decades due to the trauma of being repeatedly raped and “humiliated” by the singer.

Gary Glitter has lost a parole board bid to be freed from jail.
Pic:Met Police/PA
Image:
Glitter was jailed for 16 years in 2015. Pic: Met Police/PA

Glitter was made bankrupt last month at the County Court at Torquay and Newton Abbot, in Devon – the county where he is reportedly serving his sentence in Channings Wood prison, in Newton Abbot.

Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon, the law firm representing the woman, said: “We confirm that Gadd has been made bankrupt following our client’s application.

More on Crime

“As he has done throughout, Gadd has refused to cooperate with the process and continues to treat his victims with contempt.

“We hope and trust that the parole board will take his behaviour into account in any future parole applications, as it clearly demonstrates that he has never changed, shows no remorse and remains a serious risk to the public.”

Glitter was first jailed for four months in 1999 after he admitted possessing around 4,000 indecent images of children.

He was expelled from Cambodia in 2002, and in March 2006 was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam where he spent two-and-a-half years in prison.

Read more from Sky News:
UK set to be hotter than Greece or Spain
Mother killed by drunk-driver still on road over test delays

His sentence for the 2016 convictions expires in February 2031.

Glitter was automatically released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February 2023 after serving half of his fixed-term determinate sentence.

But he was back behind bars weeks later after reportedly trying to access the dark web and images of children.

Continue Reading

Trending